The American Library Association announced winners and finalists of their Youth Media awards, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, at a ceremony Monday . The Newbery Medal honors a distinguished work of children's literature. The Caldecott Medal acknowledges excellence in illustration. The awards are presented annually. The Newbery Medal was awarded to Clare Vanderpool's "Moon Over Manifest," which is the story 12-year-old Abileen Tucker and her adventures upon arriving in Manifest,...

- Return to other listings Dominique Raccah Dominique Raccah is the founder of Sourcebooks, where she serves as publisher and CEO. Lori Rader-Day Lori Rader-Day is the author of the “The Black Hour.” Her fiction has appeared in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, Good Housekeeping, Time Out Chicago and others. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime and International Thriller Writers. She lives in Chicago. Ron Rapoport Ron Rapoport was a sports...

David Wiesner, the author and illustrator of one previous Caldecott Medal winner for children's book illustration and a Caldecott Honor Book, or runner-up, was named winner of the 2002 Caldecott Medal for his postmodern version of "The Three Pigs" (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin). The announcement was made at the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association in New Orleans. In Wiesner's account, the elegantly drawn pigs are well aware that they are in an arbitrary setting,...

(Updates with confirmation, quotes, details) By Patricia Reaney NEW YORK, May 8 (Reuters) - American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, whose children's book "Where the Wild Things Are" has been a standard bedtime story for at least three generations, has died at the age of 83. Sendak died during the night at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut from complications from a recent stroke, a hospital spokesperson said on...

At a time when there is an ever-growing number of outstanding illustrations for children's books, artist David Diaz has been named the recipient of the 1995 Caldecott Medal, an award for the most distinguished American picture book for hildren published in 1994, in recognition of his illustrations of a book about the Los Angeles riots seen from the eyes of a child. Diaz created thick-textured, bold-colored expressionistic acrylic paintings for "Smoky Night" (Harcourt Brace...

Maurice Sendak, the children's book illustrator and author whose unsentimental approach to storytelling revolutionized the genre and whose best-known tale was the dark fantasy “Where the Wild Things Are,” has died. He was 83. Sendak, who also was a set designer for opera and film, died Tuesday at a hospital in Danbury, Conn., his friend and caretaker Lynn Caponera said. He had suffered a stroke on Friday, she said. He had already been proclaimed “the...

When David Diaz won the 1995 Caldecott Medal honoring his illustrations for "Smoky Night," a children's book about the Los Angeles riots, the award was controversial. Jean Sousa, associate director for exhibitions and family programs at the Art Institute of Chicago, says she understands. "In the past, children's books have been sweet stories, and I thought that children should have a protected time in their lives with fairy tales and fun," she says. She, however, says she changed her...

The American Library Association announced winners and finalists of their Youth Media awards, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medals, at a ceremony Monday . The Newbery Medal honors a distinguished work of children's literature. The Caldecott Medal acknowledges excellence in illustration. The awards are presented annually. The Newbery Medal was awarded to Clare Vanderpool's "Moon Over Manifest," which is the story 12-year-old Abileen Tucker and her adventures upon arriving in Manifest,...

Eighteen months ago, Jerry Spinelli quit his job as an editor at a trade journal to write books for kids full time. Product Design and Development's loss is children's literature's gain. On Monday, Spinelli, a 49-year-old father of six, won the 1991 John Newbery Medal for his novel "Maniac Magee," the frenetic, funny and touching story of a boy on the run that its author describes as "one part fact, two parts legend, and three parts snowball." Awarded by the...

Trina Schart Hyman, an award-winning illustrator of children's books, has died of cancer in Lyme, N.H. She was 65. Many of Mrs. Hyman's characters were the stuff of legends--fairy tale princesses and gnomes, Arthurian heroes. But she also imbued many of her characters with qualities taken from composites of her neighbors in the Upper Connecticut Valley, her friends, even her grandchildren. In 1985 her illustrations won the Caldecott Medal, the highest honor for children's books, for the work in...

Lynd Ward, 80, who won the 1953 Caldecott Medal book award as an illustrator and writer, authored several highly acclaimed novels that used pictures rather than words to tell their stories. He also illustrated 13 of the Limited Editions Club publications, later reproduced by Heritage Press. A memorial service for Mr. Ward, a Chicago native, will be held in the fall. He died from Alzheimer's disease Friday in Reston, Va. His father, Harry F. Ward, a Methodist minister in Chicago, was a social...

Chicago's historic Printers Row Book Fair may carry more cachet, but Aurora civic leaders are confident there's a place for the city's fledgling Midwest Literary Festival on the heartland literary landscape. "We drew about 10,000 people at last year's event, and we think we can draw 15,000 this year," said Sherman Jenkins, president of the Aurora Public Library Foundation and executive director of the Aurora Economic Development Commission, which teamed to launch the free...

Chicago's historic Printers Row Book Fair may carry more cachet, but Aurora civic leaders are confident there's a place for the city's fledgling Midwest Literary Festival on the heartland literary landscape. "We drew about 10,000 people at last year's event, and we think we can draw 15,000 this year," said Sherman Jenkins, president of the Aurora Public Library Foundation and executive director of the Aurora Economic Development Commission, which teamed to launch the free...

Children's book author and illustrator Eric Rohmann acknowledged he wasn't thinking clearly when he sleepily answered the telephone at 6:30 a.m. recently and heard the American Library Association was calling. "My first thought was that I had overdue books," said Rohmann, who works out of a home studio in La Grange. "When they told me I had won the Caldecott Medal for 2003 for my book `My Friend Rabbit,' I really was in a fog. It had never come into my mind that I might win."...

A children's book illustrator who visited River Woods Elementary School in Naperville last October didn't understand why the school's principal was insisting that his book wasn't finished. After a presentation to 4th and 5th graders, illustrator Brian Selznick was told by Ruth Badal his book was incomplete. "I was dead serious," said Badal. "I told him that there was something missing from the cover: a Caldecott sticker." The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the...

A children's book illustrator who visited River Woods Elementary School in Naperville last October didn't understand why the school's principal was insisting that his book wasn't finished. After a presentation to 4th and 5th graders, illustrator Brian Selznick was told by Ruth Badal his book was incomplete. "I was dead serious," said Badal. "I told him that there was something missing from the cover: a Caldecott sticker." The Caldecott Medal is awarded annually by the...

Margot Zemach, an award-winning children's book illustrator and author whose witty works reinterpreted folk tales for younger readers, has died of Lou Gehrig's disease at her home in Berkeley. She was 57. Ms. Zemach, who died Sunday, was illustrator or author of more than 40 children's books, including "Duffy and the Devil," "The Judge," "A Penny a Look," "Salt" "Mommy, Buy Me a China Doll," "It Could Always Be Worse" and "To Hilda for Helping." "Margot not only revivified the...

David Wiesner, the author and illustrator of one previous Caldecott Medal winner for children's book illustration and a Caldecott Honor Book, or runner-up, was named winner of the 2002 Caldecott Medal for his postmodern version of "The Three Pigs" (Clarion Books/Houghton Mifflin). The announcement was made at the midwinter meeting of the American Library Association in New Orleans. In Wiesner's account, the elegantly drawn pigs are well aware that they are in an arbitrary setting,...

The American Library Association on Monday awarded author Lois Lowry the 1994 Newbery Medal for her book "The Giver" (Houghton Mifflin). Recognized as the most distinguished contribution to American literature for children published in 1993, Lowry's thought-provoking science fiction novel describes a seemingly Utopian world that is, infact, a monotonous, monochromatic society devoid of emotions. At its midwinter meeting in Los Angeles, the ALA also named Allen Say as the recipient of...